When you hear "scientist," what do you think of? I'm willing to bet it's a guy in a white lab coat and wore-them-before-they-were-cool thick-rimmed glasses. What about "mathematician"? Probably the same thing (except maybe a sweater vest instead of a lab coat. Those dudes love their pre-hipster fashion). You see what I'm getting at here: The science and technology pros you picture are, in all likelihood, categorically male. And who could blame you? Look around an AP Multivariable Calculus class and you'll see mostly guys. Check the roster of recent computer science grads and you'll see that 86% of them are men.

Enter Chelsea Clinton, who has a different kind of character in mind: a girl who's cool and confident. And maybe even wearing heels.

On Monday, Clinton hosted the latest in a series of No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project events, this time focusing on the state of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). "We're looking at where girls and women have made gains over the last 20 years and where there are gaps," she told me about No Ceilings' efforts when we caught up this week. "And girls' engagement in STEM is a gap that's actually grown since I was a little girl."

Despite our increasingly tech-driven world, women are now even less represented in relevant fields than they were in the '80s. And for Clinton, that's kind of the point. "One of the reasons this is so upsetting to me is that STEM is now fundamental to every industry," she says. "Think about Teen Vogue—everything that's read or watched on your site is enabled by computer code. And think about the clothes we wear, most of which are now made by math." In other words, no matter how right-brain your interests, there's a big chance that left-brain studies can play an important part. "Whether you want to go into the movie business or the fashion business or architecture, all of those have STEM elements."

If you're thinking these kinds of things are better left to the trailblazers—the girls who code and the science-fair superstars among us—you might be more culturally conditioned than you realize. The thing is, it's not that girls are simply less drawn to math and science. It's that we're slowly and subtly (though not altogether intentionally) discouraged from excelling in those areas. "When girls are in first, second, third grades, they're actually just as interested as boys, and they're just as good," Clinton asserts. "But something happens in middle school where girls aren't encouraged as much as boys to nurture those interests; they're not called on as often in class. So by the time they graduate from high school, very few girls actually think a career in a STEM field would be of interest."

But with applications that grow wider, more expansive, and more exciting by the day, technology and science may actually be the keys to a whole new generation of dream jobs. And big-time employers are opening the doors: Just last week, Google pledged $50 million to get girls interested in computer science through its brand-new Made with Code initiative. "We're going to have more than a million jobs created in STEM fields over the next decade," Clinton says, "and the only way we're going to fill those jobs with the best and brightest is to not leave a gender behind."

Girl scientists and mathematicians now have advocates everywhere from Silicon Valley to the White House, and it's only going to get better from here. "I'm really encouraged that the conversation is opening up, and as much as we're focused on the problem, we're also focused on the solution," Clinton says. So to the boy who thought he was automatically better than you in physics class, the teacher who didn't expect much from you in math, and the tech boss who assumes he'll hire a man instead of you: Heads up. The game is changing, and the new players know a thing or two about defying the odds. Heels optional.